Apparatuses for Covid-Safe Intimacy

So, you want to date. But there are complications. One of your housemates spends time with a family member who is immuno-compromised. And/or your potential date works in health care and is regularly exposed to covid. And/or your other housemate is an essential worker and cannot afford sick time. And/or your caregiver works with other potentially vulnerable people. And/or…. insert any of the million factors we’ve been navigating over the last year of the pandemic, inventing new practices and habits to take care of each other.

In queer and kink communities, the legacy of the AIDS epidemic and a culture of consent negotiations provide a huge resource for thinking through how to pursue intimacy while also managing risk. In spring 2021, before the first vaccine rollout, I did a call-out for “napkin sketches” of apparatuses that would make it possible to be physically intimate without sharing air. Then I held a backyard design lab where we worked on physical prototypes.

Thank you to my napkin sketchers: Sarah Mirk, Emmett and Chandler, Salty Ng, Eric Olson, Yoko OK, Lydia, Annie, Amelia, Qilo, Heidi, anon.

Thank you to my Backyard Design Lab engineers: Annie, Qilo, Heidi